lancer
Posts: 2963
Joined: 10/18/2005
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Hi Bob,
Mine warfare is abstracted as there are no minewarfare units in the game. There is, however, some logic behind the mine aspects of the mod.
Mines are only found in coastal hexes. The closer you are to an enemy controlled port the greater your chance of running into a minefield. This is cumulative so two nearby enemy held ports will have the littoral regions between them heavily seeded with mines as time progresses.
If the AI regime is pursing a 'mine warfare' strategy then the odds increase. You can get an idea of the level of enemy mine activity from the intelligence reports that pop-up from time to time.
As the game progresses the enemy will lay new minefields at greater distances from their ports. From memory, nine hexes is as far as they can extend their tentacles. That's as the crow flies and they may even, given the right conditions, drop mines directly in front of your own ports if they are within range.
Of course they'd only do this at night, when everybody was watching the Steelers grind down the Packers.
Whenever one of your naval task forces enter a coastal hex there is a check made to see if they encounter a minefield. Distance to the nearest enemy port and the level of enemy mine warfare activity both come into it. If so then it's likely your ships will hear loud noises and a RED FLAG will be placed in the hex as an indicator of a known minefield. No guesses as to what happens if you go their again.
There is a chance that you encounter a minefield but your (assumed) mine sweepers were able to neutralise it, in which case you get a BLUE FLAG. These are hexes guaranteed to be mine free for the duration of the game. If you are planning on D-Day then that's where you want to launch it.
Keep in mind that your ships could enter a coastal hex and find nothing (no flag of either colour). There could well be a minefield present but, on the day, nobody blundered into it. You could, feasibly, enter the hex three or four times and find nothing only to run into a previously unknown minefield on the next turn. Sadly, mines don't show up on your GPS until flagged.
Strategy wise it pays to aggressively investigate enemy held shores as early in the game as you can manage as the level of enemy mine activity is generally very low and you have a better chance of sweeping clear what's there (Blue flags). Submarines are ideal for quietly poking around without being spotted by enemy air. The less they move the more stealthy they'll be.
Also take a look at the map before the umpire blows the start whistle. Look for nautical choke points. How far are these from enemy held ports? The AI loves to mine places like these and the only way to stop them is to take the nearby port.
If you capture an enemy held port then any existing minefields that have been laid from this port will, reasonably quickly, diminish in effectiveness over time as they are no longer being maintained.
The reason I put mines in the mod were to prevent the very typical - and very effective - tactic of steaming an invasion force directly up to enemy held port and capturing it by either a direct frontal amphibious assault or by landing on the hex next to it. Taking enemy held ports now require a fair bit more thought and planning.
If anyone else is reading this, the information holds good for both your NATO version of the mod and the Enhanced Mod Suite.
Cheers,
Lancer
< Message edited by lancer -- 12/3/2013 9:50:17 PM >
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